About me

Since 1973 (when I was just a tiny baby), my work background has been in journalism, communications and public relations. I’m a refugee from the Niagara Falls area to the gorgeous west coast of Canada; I’m the author of two travel books and one book about living with heart disease; my little garden won a national garden contest from Gardening Life magazine; I once had lunch with His Royal Highness Prince Edward (yes, that Prince Edward); and many years ago while I was a student at Queen’s University, I accidentally smashed our old Buick into the station wagon owned by “The English Patient” author, Michael Ondaatje. And that’s just about as much fascinating trivia as the average person can possibly stand knowing about me.

I have two grown kidlets who, luckily for me, both live here in their hometown. Ben moved back after university in Ontario with his lovely bride Paula following years of world travel adventures, and Larissa Jane, who lives two blocks away with hubby Randy in the house right next door to her childhood home, and who had their first baby (and my first grandchild), the ever-so-sweet happy girl, Everly Rose, in May 2015.

Back in 1997, I made what the Victoria Times Colonist called at the time a “riches to rags” career move when I decided to abandon the expense account world of corporate public relations in order to do something socially meaningful for a change. Thus I was able to round out my three decades of PR experience in corporate, government and not-for-profit sectors – ranging from Mercedes-Benz to the Salvation Army.

I was just your average active, outgoing PR person, a longtime Run Leader at the Y’s marathon clinic, involved in a number of community and professional organizations – all while juggling a fun and busy social life with close-knit family and friends.

But in May 2008, while working at the Victoria Hospice and Palliative Care Society, I became a member of an exclusive club that nobody ever wants to join: I was hospitalized for a myocardial infarction caused by a 95% blocked coronary artery – what doctors call the “widow-maker” heart attack.

But here’s the frightening part of this story: two weeks earlier, I had actually been sent home from the same hospital’s Emergency Department with a misdiagnosis of acid reflux, despite presenting with textbook Hollywood heart attack symptoms like chest pain, nausea, sweating, and pain radiating down my left arm. “You’re in the right demographic for acid reflux!” was the confident pronouncement of my E.D. physician.

I left hospital that day feeling supremely embarrassed and apologetic because I’d made a big fuss “over nothing!” I continued to suffer increasingly debilitating symptoms for two full weeks (but hey! at least I knew it wasn’t my heart!) until symptoms finally became so severely unbearable that I again sought medical help – this time to a revised diagnosis of “significant heart disease”.

I later learned (while attending the WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium at the world-famous Mayo Clinic) that, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, women my age and younger are seven times more likely to be misdiagnosed in mid-heart attack and sent home from Emergency compared to our male counterparts presenting with identical symptoms.(1)

My very first “Pinot & Prevention” audience after coming home from my Mayo Clinic training in 2008!

I launched this blog Heart Sisters in 2009, mostly just to help publicize my free “Pinot & Prevention”presentations on women’s heart health I started doing after returning from that Mayo training. It’s now grown like Topsy, with over 12 million views so far from 190 countries! I call my blogging “cardiac rehab for my brain”. My writing’s also been published internationally, including in the British Medical Journal. And in 2014, the BMJ invited me to be a Patient Reviewer for cardiology papers submitted to the journal for publication, part of their innovative peer review process.

Johns Hopkins University Press approached me in 2015 to ask if I’d ever considered writing a book based on my Heart Sisters blog articles. Thus began a two-year adventure culminating in my book called “A Woman’s Guide to Living With Heart Disease”(ask for it at your local bookshop or order online and save 20% off the list price by using the discount code HTWN when you order!)

For those who like to believe that I must have needed a cardiac crisis to add meaning to an otherwise meaningless existence (I didn’t!), here’s how you might like to view the bright side of my story. If I’d never had that heart attack:

I would never have been named a ‘Women’s Health Hero‘ for 2009 by Our Bodies Ourselves of Boston – one of 20 inductees from seven countries honoured for women’s health activism in our communities;

I would never have been granted media accreditation to attend the annual Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Vancouver in 2011, 2014 and 2017 to interview cardiac researchers firsthand while covering the conference proceedings for my Heart Sisters readers;

I would never have been awarded an ePatient scholarship to attend Stanford University’s ‘Medicine X’ Conference in September 2012 in Palo Alto, California – based on my “history of patient engagement, community outreach and advocacy”.

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"BEST HEART BLOG ON THE WEB!" . . ......... Dr. Stephen Parker

♥ For women living with heart disease, from the unique perspective of CAROLYN THOMAS, a Mayo Clinic-trained women's health advocate, heart attack survivor, blogger, author, speaker here on the west coast of Canada

♥ Information for the general public, heart patients or their family members, health professionals, and all students of the heart

the news

♥ The first WomenHeart Support Group program in Canada is being held at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, BC on the third Wednesday evening of each month. Any woman living with heart disease is invited to attend. For more info, email barbara (dot) field (at) viha (dot) ca

♥Free Virtual Support Groups offered by WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women With Heart Disease, scheduled throughout each month on three specific topics: Heart Failure, Atrial Fibrillation or General Heart Disease in Women. Check the current schedule to sign up.